Base-office and Network Infrastructure It doesn't take long to discover, once you hit the road, that no amount of on-board technology can satisfy ALL the needs of a nomadic business. Without going into exhaustive detail, I can report that this whole affair would be impossible without two essential support facilities: online networks and a base office. The online world -- which I long ago dubbed Dataspace -- has been home for years. It is a multilayered place that is every place, yet no place at all; it is a new world whose national boundaries are etched along corporate and intellectual lines instead of geographic. The Internet (along with numerous commercial services and various packet and wireline bulletin board systems) comprises my electronic neighborhood and essential conduit for business information traffic. Without the Net, quite simply, this adventure could not exist... and my physical location would make a difference. The other essential component is the home base. A time may come when this is unnecessary, but a number of requirements have yet to be met. Most importantly, much of the world still depends on paper, and the base office serves as a gateway between that physical information medium and the infinitely more portable electronic forms. In addition, such institutions as banks and insurance companies are still more comfortable with people who have physical addresses, and the base office presents the illusion of stability. And, of course, there is the presence of an adaptive intelligent biological information system to deal with the myriad unexpected problems of any business. Automating that is quite a few years off.